Airbus Order Announcements Keep Coming In

As in years past, the 2007 Paris Air Show -- like its even-year counterpart in Farnborough, England -- has proven to be a boon for Airbus, but the significance of this year's performance, in particular, should resonate throughout the commercial airline industry.

After two years of troubling news concerning production delays with the A380 and A350 XWB -- as well as rumors of insider trading scandals, and pending layoffs and plant closings --it looks like Airbus is back. With a vengeance.

To date -- and the show isn't over yet -- Airbus has announced 548 orders and commitments in Paris, reports the Associated Press. That compares to 129 for Boeing -- of which 70 were new orders, not previously accounted for on Boeing's Orders and Deliveries website.

While Airbus admits to holding orders announcements until major air shows -- versus Boeing's "announce 'em as soon as the customer signs on the dotted line" approach -- the flood of Airbus announcements from Paris has brought the European planemaker considerable, positive media attention in the past several days.

A sizeable chunk of those commitments are for the planemaker's troubled A350 XWB, which has yet to have its final design locked down and isn't slated to fly until 2013.

So far, Airbus has received 134 firm orders for the composite-and-aluminum competitor to Boeing's 787 in Paris, including Wednesday's signing of a firm deal for 22 planes for Russia's Aeroflot, and another 56 planes from India's Kingfisher and Libya's Afriqiyah Airways. The planemaker has also earned 13 new orders for its A380 superjumbo -- from Emirates, Qatar Airways and Air France.

Boeing isn't sweating, though. Orders for the A350 XWB lag its 787 Dreamliner, slated for rollout next month, by over 450 orders. And as far as firm order counts, Airbus is coming closer to parity with Boeing's order numbers for the year-to-date -- 405 firm orders, to 510 for Boeing.

Including purchase agreements, Airbus has the current lead: 688, according to numbers given by Airbus COO John Leahy to Agence-France Presse Thursday, compared to 520 total orders listed on Boeing's website.

Airbus has also hinted at more big news before the Paris Air Show wraps up Sunday. Stay tuned.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.boeing.com